Hi! You may know me as woodburner. Or hey, you may not. Anyway, this is a mostly open journal - subscribe/unsubscribe at will, no need to ask permission. :)

So I just finished watching True Blood S4 and I'm actually KIND OF MAD, lol. Idek you guys, I was pretty fucking pissed about ( spoiler ), but at least I saw that coming from a mile away, and I could have gotten past it. (And the results of that may be... uh, interesting, to boot.) But ( spoiler ). WHAT THE FUCK. THAT WAS SO FUCKING RANDOM. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN FUCKING DO THAT. IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE. GODDAMN.

Fuck you, True Blood writers. No srsly, fuck you. I've mostly been merely hilaritized by all your shock-factor camp writing, which is the reason I've watched the show to this point, but you've taken this shit too far. This was just completely random and pointless. Fuck.

(And I notice the characters you just ( spoiler ) Don't think I don't see what you did there.)

Idek if I want to watch the next season. I'm curious as to what happens to Lafayette, but lord knows they're just going to make him as miserable as possible, so I'm not sure there's any point.

Rachel Manija Brown (rachelmanija) and Sherwood Smith (sartorias) come forward to reveal that they were offered representation for their co-written post-apocalyptic YA novel by an agent at a major agency - on the condition that they make their gay character straight. Here is the article on Genreville at Publisher's Weekly, and here is the article on rachelmanija's blog.

They are asking any authors who have had a similar experience to come forward over on the Genreville post (pseudonymously if neccesary) and tell their stories. (Chillingly, the very first comment to that post is an author revealing that they were not asked to erase the icky gay cooties - their editor just did it for them, without mentioning it to the author at all.)

They're also asking editors and agents who are open to gay characters and other minority characters to explicitly advertise as such. They're asking readers to fight with their wallets - to buy YA books featuring queer characters, to request their libraries carry YA books featuring queer characters, and so on. Here is a list of known YA SFF books with major queer characters as a handy reference, complete with annotations and links to Amazon.

(And, because intersectionality is important: Known YA SFF with POC main characters, author surnames A-L, and author surnames M-Z.)

Please reblog and retweet. (Twitter hashtag: #YesGayYA)

This shit isn't going to stop until the writers and the consumers stand up and say that this is unacceptable. It won't stop until we send the clear message that we, the readers, do want to read these books, that we will buy them and request them at our libraries - that they are by no means "unmarketable," and that we know that flimsy excuse for what it is: a flimsy excuse.

This time in our regularly scheduled idiocy re: YA fiction, we get bonus erasure of... well, PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE LIVING OVER HERE IN REALITY LAND.

"Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?"

Oh my GOD, shut your FUCKING MOUTH. Sorry if that's too "coarse" for you, but that's really all the response this article deserves, and I am way too enraged to clearly enumerate all the ways in which you are dangerously and harmfully wrong. (A choice quote that pretty much sums up this whole article: "If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is." Because as we all know, nobody in real life ever experiences anything truly awful. To suggest otherwise is distorting the truth, y'all.)

I was actually thinking of this exact attitude recently wrt the skirt clutching and fluttering over the ~inappropriate~ material in Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tale series, and in the reviews for a load of different YA books I was browsing. Basically what the argument comes down to is this: if you're a teen in a bad situation, if you're being abused, molested, or neglected; if you're poor and living in slums or trailer parks or on the streets with bums and addicts; if you're depressed, self-harming, if you have an eating disorder or any other serious mental illness; if you've made bad choices, if you're dealing with addictions and consequences and pain and misery; even if you're just an average kid who curses a lot and smokes pot and drinks and parties and has sex and sometimes acts like an obnoxious asshole - if you are any of these things, you aren't real. You don't get to have your own narrative. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to have adventures. Heroes are good clean Christian folk, whitebread, middle class, and would never have the audacity to come face to face with the "ugly" parts of life, either by choice or otherwise. We don't want to hear about you of all people, we don't want to have to see you, read about you, think about you. You're just trash.

In our fiction, our proper fiction, you do not exist.

...Welp, I guess I did have something to say about that article, after all.

eta: Maureen Johnson apparently started a twitter hashtag in response: #YASaves

eta #2: THE SIDEBAR. I had not even fucking NOTICED the sidebar. A recommended reading list... divided into books that are "for young men" and "for young women." I CAN'T. I SERIOUSLY JUST CANNOT DEAL. MY FACE IS ON FIREEEEEE.

And now I take a brief break from my unending bout of SEVERE UNRELENTING ANXIETY to mention that if you are complaining about how the biology in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan doesn't make sense, YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT, GOOD SIR OR MADAM, AND YOU ARE MISSING IT SO HARD. Why are you even here? Go read something boring.

(I don't even understand this. Do people complain about, I don't know, tales of medieval knights, because the dragon couldn't possibly fly with wings that size?)

Yeah, uh, hi. I'm not dead!

- I did have things to say about that awful female character flowchart, but there are just too many things and I don't have the capacity to say them coherently and everyone else already did anyway, but yeah. That happened.


- I have approximately a jillion emails and the like that I owe people and right now that seems so beyond me I can't even. Augh.


- On a brighter note, Malinda Lo just revealed the cover for her upcoming second book, Huntress. OMG EXCITING.


- Also, apparently sales of Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix have gone up significantly. Since it has been pulled out of bookstores, this is quite a feat. YAY! (I'd link or post the screencap of the tweet, but I waited too long and can't find it anymore, alas. inkstone posted a screencap here!)

- So like, I don't get the point of eyeshadow base/primer. Can't you just use foundation? What's the difference? Make-up is so confusing. :\


- Relatedly, Aromaleigh final clearance sale. I am having a difficult time restraining myself from buying ALL THE EYESHADOWS, despite the fact that I rarely wear the stuff. T-they're so pretty and sparkly ;.;

I am so sad they're going out of business you guys, what am I going to do for foundation/concealer/powder when I run out of mine? (Fortunately that should be... years, given my rate of use and how much I picked up at the sale.)


- I have had two leaks in as many weeks. Plumber dude said the other day he was out in this neighborhood fixing a leak, and about as soon as he fixed the leak and left, another pipe on the other side of the SAME APARTMENT cracked open and started pouring water down the wall, so he had to come right back. Seriously, this is ridiculous.

Both of our recent leaks were slow leaks that had been going on a while without us noticing. The one last week had been dripping into the carpet, unnoticed, the carpet mildewing horribly, and when we went to move the bookcase sitting over the wet spot, this god-awful sewage-like smell burst out of it. Yeah. That screams healthy. As if I'm not sick enough already. :| And they didn't even cut out that square of carpet or anything. I don't even know what they did, but it doesn't stink anymore, although there's still a pink stain from the mildew.


- Recently watched:

First 2 eps of Lost Girl (on some Canadian channel, I don't remember) - Wonderfully cheesy and fun urban fantasy! But seriously, they had me at "the main character is a bisexual succubus." Can we please get some makeouts with the doctor lady? Please? PLEASE. I like the doctor lady better than the shapeshifter dude. MAKEOUTS PLSKTHX.

Sherlock (the recent BBC miniseries) - I had no idea this would be so entertaining or I would have watched it sooner. He's so MANIC and COMPLETELY BATSHIT. Possibly both the creepiest and most hilarious interpretation of Sherlock ever.

Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) has the oddest face. It's like someone squashed a very pretty face together with a somewhat homely, weird-looking face, and the end result is sort of confusing but fascinating. I wouldn't call him handsome, but I like looking at him.

Incidentally, dude playing Watson favors Dave's dad so much it freaks me out.

White Collar - it's not quite Leverage, but it's got some of Leverage's charm, and it's really entertaining. And wassname playing Neal is some very nice eyecandy. (Although his eyes freak me out! They're so WIDE and INTENSE and MANIC. They give me the feeling that he is about to start vibrating faster and faster until he EXPLODES.)

Also: Diana! I love her so much. When she disappeared after the first episode I was CRUSHED, you guys. Then when she came back for the S1 finale I was all :DDD!!! And then she stuck around for S2! GLEE. S2 ep2 was THE BEST.



But seriously, that cliffhanger at the end of the summer half? JFC, YOU GUYS. JFC.

Man. I haven't watched this much English-language stuff in a long time. WHERE ARE THE SUBTITLES? S-sob I am actually serious I keep missing so much of what they're saying. ;____;

OH MY GOD THE SOCIAL TERRORIST OH MY GOD THE HORROR

Do not ever just "drop by". CALL FIRST. Never, EVER, EVERRRRR show up at my door wanting to hang out without calling first, or I will probably begin to hate you very quickly. My house is my safe place! My shining bubble of peace! The place where I do not have to be seen or heard or see or hear! CONTROL OVER THE SAFE PLACE IS SACRED. DO NOT VIOLATE THE SAFE PLACE.

I don't understand why anyone does this! It boggles my mind! That there could be people out there that think showing up at someone's home unannounced is an acceptable thing to do! I assume it is because they, too, have people show up at their house unannounced and it doesn't bother them at all! WHICH MEANS IT'S LIKE THEY ARE OF AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SPECIES. THEY DO NOT THINK LIKE EARTH PEOPLE. This is why I can't bear 80% of extroverts.

Unless your arm is off and you need me to take you to the hospital or to call 911, or you have had sudden dire finance implosion and have no way of contacting me whatsoever and you want to let me know that, you do not "drop by". The only way this is even vaguely acceptable is if you left something at my house or you need to drop something off, but you should at least call on the way if it's in any way possible, or have let me know that you'll be by sometime today, or SOMETHING.

(Also omg "the trap" ahaha, her bird-like head-swivel! HAVE YOU TRIED THE VEGAN SOYBEAN SHAKE YOU CANNOT ESCAPEEEEE)

In light of LJ's latest fuck-up (i.e., the one where they completely undermined ALL the privacy, being that people can now crosspost their comments to your LOCKED posts to their facebooks and twitters,) I thought I would note that I would appreciate it if none of you crossposted any of your comments to my entries. Of course, it goes without saying that I don't want anyone crossposting their comments to my occasional locked posts; most of my journal is open, however, and while linking to my posts and quoting your own words elsewhere is obviously okay, I do not want my fannish activities on the stupid-ass facesbooks, so kindly don't spread it there for me.

What I don't understand is why anyone thought that this would be a good idea. I mean, did nobody stop and say, "hold up guys, won't this lead to massive breaches of privacy? Aren't our users going to complain about that?" NOBODY???

And this isn't even touching on the fact that I can no longer tab+enter to post a comment. Oh my GOD you guys, this is so annoying I can't even. If I slip and do it on instinct, I end up on my account settings, and when I backspace, my comment field is wiped. :E I also hear that having the boxes above the post button like that is causing accessibility issues for people with various disabilities.

ETA: Oh my god, LJ. The pingback feature also can post text from locked posts.

Anyway, since a lot of people are irritated (again) I thought I'd offer up some DW invite codes, since I've got a bunch. Can I just post them here and you guys use them at will? Does that like, work? Well, if it doesn't, just comment with your email address and I'll send you an invite. If it does, it'd be nice if you dropped a comment letting me know which code you took so I can cross it off, but it's not imperative or anything.


DRDE8YX2TPQTZAAADGBX
2H9SM8935V4NNAAADGBY
Z726GFHHADERAAAAD47P
4NJZ7EFGDRV3CAAAEDV7
NJBM4FN6QKMKVAAAKFBU
X48HY9TA8YCGWAAAKFBV
QZGFAEHSXAEE5AAAKFBW
88F6NXHQ7J6V7AAAKFBX
DW4A698TVQXAPAAAKFBY
GWQJHD22REA23AAAKFBZ
R74ZKPS99CEB4AAAKFB2

- In my head, Yuki Kajiura's Moonflower is totes the theme song to The Etched City. Just sayin'. It's all holy silver twinkling layered over this lush, green sound that's sort of dirty, like it's covered in a layer of grime. (...I realize my personal reaction to that song might be a little odd.) I can't even listen to it without thinking of the book, esp. the scene near the end with Gwynn in the rain.


- Am I the only person who can spend days on end writing and tweaking and writing and tweaking a story of less than 1000 words? Seriously. This is ridiculous.

(I have retooled the structure of this Umineko ficlet at least three times. Idek.)


- You know, I was gonna post about the shithead's (as you-know-who shall be referred to from now on) massacre of the Avatar series and link to all the hilarious reviews panning it (such as Roger Ebert's), but everyone's already done that, and I just don't have the motivation to deal with talking about it anymore.

So I will just quote @DrunkHulk on the subject: "DRUNK HULK JUST FIGURE OUT TWIST! M NIGHT SHYMALAN CAREER WAS DEAD WHOLE TIME!"


- On the subject of whitewashing (but not bad movies), Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix is getting a new cover for its paperback release... and well, just look at it. The cover of the upcoming sequel will pretty much be a carbon copy, too. Sigh.

As I said to inkstone, regardless of whether those women are white or not, we are obviously meant to interpret them that way. And not only are they whitewashed, those covers are completely inappropriate to the material. Those clothes? What the fuck? That modern, teen paranormal romance look? The story is a fantasy adventure set in ancient China, people. I just. What.

I have seen some inexplicable covers, man, but those should come with some 4chan-esque "pic unrelated" label.


- Oh! And I just watched the new eps of Leverage! I spent the whole of 301 going, "Billy is AWESOME! Where did they FIND this guy?! ...And why does he remind me so much of Hardison???" Well uh. Apparently dude playing him was Edwin Hodge, Aldis Hodge's (dude that plays Hardison) brother. *g*

So I had the disturbing realization today that I don't remember how to do long division. I mean, this is like, pretty basic math, isn't it? Do I seriously not remember how to do anything past adding, subtracting, multiplying, and the kind of simple division where the numbers have the decency to make some goddamn sense?

Man, forget remembering anything from high school algebra, I'm pretty sure we learned the basics of long division before I even got out of elementary school.

I feel like my brain was just waiting for a moment when I wasn't looking and then it like, opened up the top of my skull on a hinge and started GLEEFULLY throwing this shit out, like "WHEEEEE! \:DDD/ NOW I CAN FINALLY GET RID OF THIS CRAP!" It's forming a trail behind me as I wander around and I'm all blissfully unaware, like "doo dee doo, let's internet!" and as I sit there with the blue glow on my face I start drooling a little as I slowly become stupider and stupider, and I have no idea what the hell is happening to me.

Realizing that you spent all those hours being tortured in a classroom having lots of numbers and funny symbols and formula hammered forcefully into a brain that considers them tantamount to poison and that all those hours were pretty much useless because now you don't remember any of it is sort of... soul destroying.

God, I hate math.

NO. NO, NO, NO, ROBIN HOBB. Mental illness is NOT the same thing as an "artistic temperament"! No, artistic temperment is not "often spelled 't e n d e n c y t o m a n i c d e p r e s s i o n'" AUGH SD:LFKJSD:LKJ JESUS FUCKING CHRIST STOP SPREADING THIS STUPID HARMFUL BULLSHIT MYTH, FUCK YOU.

FUCK.

YOU.

I'm sorry, I cannot bring myself to be civil about this anymore. I couldn't even read past the "often spelled 'tendency to manic depression'" part. This isn't a difference of opinion, this is just plain wrong and harmful. People suffer and DIE because of this insidious, disgusting, illogical bullshit.

It makes no SENSE. I don't understand why people have so much trouble wrapping their minds around the necessity of treating mental illness! Do you question people's need of their heart medication? Of their insulin? Then why do you persist in imagining that all mental illnesses are made up fantasies to - to - I don't even know what people imagine the purpose of making up mental illnesses is.

And where, for god's sake where did this myth that all psychoactive medications will BRUTALLY CRUSH AND SURGICALLY REMOVE your ~*~special snowflake artistic creativity~*~ get started? You would think the number of artists and writers who have taken them or currently take them and manage to keep producing art just fine would put some kind of a dent in this myth, but no! IT REFUSES TO DIE.

Yes, psychoactive meds are serious shit. They can have all sorts of unintended, serious consequences. Just like many, many other very necessary medications for a host of other illnesses. That is why you take them under the close supervision of a doctor! Just like with those other medications! The fact that they have potentially dangerous side effects doesn't mean that they aren't life-saving and necessary for many people to function!

And guess what? If you take a little pill that makes you go so blank you can't write/draw/what-have-you? YOU TELL YOUR FUCKING DOCTOR AND HE FUCKING CHANGES YOUR PRESCRIPTION. A prescription is not a life-sentence! Yes, I realize some patients with some of the more serious mental illnesses have trouble with losing their autonomy, and that is a scary problem that needs addressing, but people, if you have anxiety or depression or ADD or the like and you go to the doctor for help, the doctor is not going to shove pills down your throat and turn you into a -GASP- uncreative person against your will. He or she is going to work with you to find a solution that helps. That is a doctor's job. (And seriously, there are much more serious potential side-effects to watch out for than that. My god, people. Writer's block is not the end of the fucking world.)


...Wow, that rant was unexpected!


eta: avendya notes that actually, yes, people get questioned about their need for pain medication and insulin and so forth all the time, and it is a very good point. Just because people seem to have an especial mental block as to accepting mental illnesses being "real" illnesses deserving of treatment doesn't mean that society doesn't have a tendency to deny people's right to the treatment they need for any number of ailments, or that those ailments even exist.

I also want to note that I am aware there are very bad psychiatrists - doctors who will try to bully you into taking this or that, or not taking this or that, and ignore the patient's very valid reasons of why a certain course of treatment is not right for them, and I don't want to try and erase those who've had such experiences. This isn't any different than the rest of the medical field, and there are plenty of people with non-mental ailments who experience this sort of mistreatment as well. But that doesn't detract from the fact that many of us desperately need treatments for our ailments, whether mental or physical (false dichotomy, but I'm not sure of what wording to use other than that), and to discourage someone from seeking the help that they need goes beyond irresponsible into downright monstrous.

Also, I am unlocking this post, because so many people are raging about it publicly that I'm beginning to feel silly for having locked it in the first place.

Yes, I know it's been a million years in internet time already and I'm horribly late posting this, so sue me.

- bookshop/bookshop: I'm done explaining why fanfic is okay. Contains an impressively extensive list of professional works that are, in some way, shape, or form, fanfic.

- thefourthvine: [Rant]: Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout - "If they would just say, 'It feels wrong. I don't have a reason - it just feels wrong,' I still wouldn't agree, but at least I wouldn't have to question their maturity. It's when they try to justify their feeling that they start to sound like a seven-year-old explaining why his cousin shouldn't be allowed to come near his toys."

- Catherynne Valente/yuki_onna: Fan the Flames

Quote from the above link:

So much ire spent over something that ultimately helps books, keeps the conversation going past the long tail of marketing, keeps them alive and loved--I've never understood it. Quashing fan activity is not only self-sabotaging, but unkind.

[...]

Reading is an active sport, and we create books together, in the space between my words and your heart. I put those people into the world, into the sphere of collective imagination. How can I possibly begrduge others playing with them? The whole point of publishing them was for others to love them."

- There's also a comment on the above post from Ursula Vernon (ursulav) that rings very true - it seems like so much of the argument against fanfic consists of, "You should be writing REAL fiction instead of playing around!" Putting aside the claim that fanfic is inherently lesser than original fiction (which I disagree with), even if we were to accept fanfic's inherent inferiority, hello, missing the point by a mile, maybe? It's like some pro-authors have never even considered the idea that writing can sometimes be just for fun. And I think that's really, really sad.

PSA to those of you who keep listing off the supposed reasons we might write fanfic (because as we all know, it is such an unfathomable mystery): Why do fanficcers write fanfic? Generally speaking, because it is fun. Because we love the characters, the world, the story, and we enjoy spending time immersed in it, wondering how he might have been feeling in that scene, what would she have done if this had happened instead, what happened to these characters after the last page. Because we love this narrative, and playing in it is fun. Remember what that's like? Having fun? Now, having solved this mystery for you, kindly stop making up all sorts of silly reasons why people might write fanfic.

- And, to close this meandering post of links: Poppy Z Brite (docbrite) retracts her (his? never quite clear on what pronouns he/she prefers) former anti-fanfic stance: Fanfic: At the End of the Day

If anyone else has related links they found interesting, feel free to share them in the comments. (And uh, if anyone's done any kind of link roundup, point me in that direction?)

After watching 4 episodes of Hana Yori Dango (Japanese drama version), I am forced to conclude that it is actually two entirely different shows mashed together. One of them is absolutely hysterically funny and charming! The other is INTENSELY DISTURBING AND INFURIATING.

There is so much OH MY GOD JUST WHY WOULD YOU EVER in such a short space I can't even -

Okay so, let's have the Designated Love Interest be the kind of scummy asshole that would actually try to get the heroine gang raped to run her out of the school! Then, later, when he has started to actually act like something akin to a human being, let's have her friend backstab her and get a random guy at a club to slip her a roofie and take half-naked pictures of her next to him, and then spread them around the school! And then, to top it off, let's have Designated Love Interest not believe her when she tries to tell him that this wasn't her doing and decide she must be a cheating bitch (nevermind the fact that she has never agreed to go out with him in the first place)! This sounds great, right?!

NO. No, this sounds perfectly AWFUL, what were you THINKING.

It's all the more upsetting because when the show is funny and charming, it's really funny and charming. And then they just keep throwing all this jarringly awful sexist bullshit in there. Am I seriously supposed to be rooting for this couple? SERIOUSLY???

I am told that the manga for this is just as awful, which, considering that it is supposedly the best selling shoujo manga of all time, disturbs me on so many levels I can't even begin to enumerate them.

Because J-commercials make everything 10 times better. ...God I love Leverage.

(Also, was it just me, or was that FBI lady near the end... r-really hot?)

---

Lol @ that massive avalanche of fail in the comments on the kuroshitsuji comm. (Seriously, do not click on that link unless you are okay with getting a faceful of misogyny and transfail.) That was... special.

Just... general PSA, folks... You're not entitled to knowing what's in a person's pants. I mean, I know I've made jokes before about wanting to know what equipment I'm supposed to imagine when I envision someone sprawled on a bed (...and maybe those jokes were pushing it too far, and if so I apologize), but in all seriousness, YOU AREN'T.

And I am not even going to bother covering the "ew, girl cooties" bit, because jfc, how many times.

So apparently I have slipped into some parallel universe where celebrities everywhere feel comfortable publicly speaking out in defense of an admitted and convicted child rapist. A parallel universe in which CNN publishes articles covering the issue which gloss over that little "rape" thing and instead opt to focus on all the glowing praise showered on him by his supporters. A parallel universe in which Whoopi Goldberg insists we not call it "rape," because it wasn't "rape-rape". I seriously would not have believed this could happen in this day and age, but apparently, I was deluded and naive.

A primer:

- Polanski was 44. Samantha Gailey was 13. 44. 13.

- Polanski drugged her with alcohol and a Quaalude, and she was thus incapable of giving informed consent.

- The victim never consented at all. She said "no" and "please stop". She said this repeatedly.

You can read the grand jury transcript here.

The best we can really hope for is that many of those signing the petition are ignorant of the facts or have their panties in a twist simply because of the ~*~sanctity of film festivals~*~ or whatever. I do not see this as much of a defense. Either you are the absolute height of stereotypical star-studded flightiness, all eager to jump on the latest bandwagon cause and sign a petition to free a man without knowing the details of the crime he committed - when the crime he committed is the rape of a 13 year old girl - or you think that at international film festivals, legitimate political dissidents and child rapists should be protected alike, all for the sake of not harshing your award ceremony squee. And this is the best we can hope for.

But you know what I think most of them are thinking? Most of them are probably thinking that great artistic geniuses should be allowed their eccentricities. What's a little child rape compared to artistic greatness, right?

Some choice quotes:

This is for me a shock. I am ashamed to be Swiss, that the Swiss is doing such a thing to brilliant fantastic genius, that millions and millions of people love his work. He's a brilliant guy, and he made a little mistake 32 years ago. What a shame for Switzerland.
- Otto Weisser (as quoted in the CNN article)

"A little mistake." Child rape = "a little mistake". I repeat, what's a little child rape compared to artistic greatness, right?

Matt, you want to hold to those hard and fast rules – no problem. I disagree, though, that it’s “child abuse.” It was inappropriate, it was wrong, but it wasn’t the kind of child abuse the people I know who were victimized went through. For one thing, you all see the victim here as completely innocent – I do not. I knew young girls who were in a hurry to grow up, who drank and did drugs and slept around at that age — it was a 60s and 70s thing in that part of Los Angeles. She wanted to be a star – thought this was how it was done. It was dumb – my 11 year old daughter knows better. It was different than, say, him saying he was going to help her with a homework project, luring her inside, drugging her and raping her. This was a young girl acting a lot older than she was, trying to play along in order to become famous.
- Sasha Stone at Awards Daily

Translation: The little slut deserved it - I mean, look at how short that skirt was! Not like it was Polanski's responsibility to know better or anything. Men have no control over their own penis.

Debra Winger calls his arrest a "philistine collusion" and says:

This fledgling festival has been unfairly exploited, and whenever this happens, the whole art world suffers. We hope today this latest (arrest) order will be dropped. It is based on a three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece.

Can I get an encore of "what's a little child rape compared to artistic greatness" with a side of sneering at you plebes who just don't get it?

eta: Oh god, I totally forgot to include this winner:

We live in an age that is so thoroughly post-modern that you can find an obvious literary antecedent for nearly every seamy media storyline. The same goes for the Polanski case, which is full of echoes of “Les Miserables,” the classic Victor Hugo novel about Jean Valjean, an ex-con trying to turn his life around who is being obsessively tracked and hunted down by the Parisian police inspector Javert.

Hugo’s story is a tragedy, as is the life story of Polanski, who was a fugitive as a boy and is now a fugitive as an old man. Whether the L.A. County district attorney office has its way or not, it is not a story that can have a happy ending. I think Polanski has already paid a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions. The real tragedy is that he will always, till his death, be snubbed and stalked and confronted by people who think the price he has already paid isn’t enough.

- Patrick Goldstein

Jean Valjean, people. Polanski is just like Jean Valjean. He needed to rape that child to survive, you know!

I don't think I'm going out on a limb much in positing that this is the attitude of the majority of Polanski's defenders. Even if it's not, the alternative is... not much better.

Fortunately, there is some sanity left in the world: here's a list of celebrities and writers who have spoken out against Polanski.

PSA:

What not to say when engaged in a conversation about any kind of -ism!

"People who [disagree with whatever my opinion is] should have their mouths wired shut!"

Especially if you are a white man.

JUST SAYIN', GUYS.

Ugh.

eta: You know, I am really paranoid about saying stupid shit because I am a very ignorant person and I know it, but Jesus fucking Christ, some days, I just take comfort in the fact that no matter how stupid what comes out of my mouth gets, it will never get that fucking stupid.

eta #2: "Oh, so I'm guilty by an accident of birth, oh woe, people are going to hate me just because I'm white, that's not fair!"

OH GEE, PEOPLE MALIGNING YOU FOR THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT MIGHT FEEL BAD. CRY ME A RIVER. AND COME BACK TO ME WHEN YOU CAN GET ARRESTED FOR DRIVING WHILE WHITE.

Okay, wtf-ing hell, I do not usually get seriously angry about this shit, but Jesus.

- So, funny thing from the other day that I forgot to post about. You know those obnoxious door-to-door magazine salespeople? The "I have a chance to win blah blah blah if I sell enough of this crap" people? Yeah, we got one of those despite the "no soliciting" sign at the entrance to the neighborhood. So there's this knock at the door and Dave goes to answer it, and the guy's first words:

"Hi, I'm just your friendly neighborhood pedophile! :D"

...Yeah, hon, I don't know where you got that idea for an ice-breaker from, but it is, shall we say, ineffective at best.


- Another thing I keep forgetting to post about: whitewashing book covers is nothing new, but pretending you did it for the sake of the story is a pretty wretched new one on me. The author herself, Justine Larbalestier, talks about how her US publisher, Bloomsbury, whitewashed the cover of her book Liar, putting a white girl on the cover when the protagonist is black. rachelmanija also has a post about it here. Both of those posts sum things up better than I could, but what really burns me the most about the whole business is summed up in this quote:

“I do think it’s going to raise awareness of race in teen literature to new levels,” said Cecka. “Clearly, our striving for ambiguity with this cover, and for it to be interpreted as a ‘lie’ itself didn’t work for everyone. But again, if this jacket proves a catalyst for a bigger discussion about how the industry is dealing with its books on race, that’s a very large good to come of this current whirlwind.”

Yes, because it's not like you were deliberately buying into the racist assumption that black people on book covers won't sell or anything. You did it for the story. Even though the author herself told you the protag was a black girl - clearly you know more about the story than she does! And you're just so concerned about racial issues in the industry; that's totally why you perpetuated the long-standing, racist tradition of white-washing characters of color on book covers - it was to ~open up a dialogue~! Clearly, you deserve a medal for this service you have done.

Oh please, gag me with a spoon.

Anyway, if you're also displeased and would like to let Bloomsbury know, you can contact either Deb Shapiro or Melanie Cecka at deb.shapiro@bloomsburyusa.com and melanie.cecka@bloomsburyusa.com.

halcyonjazz neatly sums up everything that is wrong with the upcoming live-action Avatar movie:

The whitewashing in the upcoming live-action adaptation, The Last Airbender, is nothing but offensive. Period. It's pissing on everything Avatar was trying to change by introducing that oriental fantasy doesn't have to be subjected to orientalism for it to work for the American audience. The fact that they claimed they made the changes BECAUSE American audiences would better relate is offensive.

The fact that they can’t acknowledge that Aang is modeled to be Tibetan, not white, is offensive.

The fact that they made all three heroes white--including characters Sokka and Katara who were anything but--is offensive.

The fact that in response to this criticism, Jackson Rathbone (who is slated to play Sokka) said that all he needs to do to play the part is get a tan is offensive.

The fact that they made the Fire Nation--the ENEMY nation--as the lone nation to have dark-skinned people by making it a faux-India is offensive.

The fact the casting director said "If you're Korean, bring a kimono" for auditioning extras is offensive.

The fact that they’re progressively uprooting any Pacific-Asian influence that makes Avatar--going so far as to get rid of the Chinese writings--is offensive.

It is offensive. It is offensive. There is no defence for this.

It shows that Asians are still considered less than other ethnic minorities in Hollywood. It shows that Asians aren't allowed to play Asians in a show made FOR Asians in America. It shows that the only way for Asians to play the lead characters is to make movies outside of America.

That is offensive.

There is no difference between a white man wearing bootblack for Othello and a white man getting a tan to play an Inuit. I don't even know how someone can think there is, but there isn't. No amount of special effects, high-budgeted art-direction and cool kung-fu moves The Last Airbender will undoubtedly have will mask the fact it's racist bullshit and an abortion of the original show.

The strangest thing to me is that Hollywood is pulling their typical "if it ain't white, white people won't watch it" bullshit even when they have the proof right there in front of them that white people will, in fact, watch it. This movie is being made because Avatar was such a wildly successful cartoon - and it was a cartoon populated by Asian characters.

If you're not angry about this, you should be. It's irrelevant whether you're an Avatar fan or not; the implications and repercussions of this joke of a movie go far past the boundaries of fandom. If you somehow hadn't seen the links yet, you can get news and info from aang_aint_white and racebending.

I was thinking, y'know, all I do is gush about Pandora Hearts, but it's not like I don't have problems with it. Because really, Pandora Hearts has some gender issues that really bug me. Not that this is any different than the vast majority of anime/manga out there, of course. But it's somehow even more irritating when you really, really love a series than when you're just casually interested.

( tl;dr, and spoilers (though fairly minor ones, I think) )

Jesus, that was the most tl;dr post I've written in ages. I didn't know I had this much to say about it!

I am taking two (generic) 20mg Prilosecs when I get up, 2-3 75mg (generic) Zantacs throughout the day, and another 20mg Prilosec when I go to bed. Oh, and after all this? I still have to take about 4-6 doses of Maalox throughout the day. Not to mention the promethazine (nausea med), which sometimes I can get away with just a half a pill of, but I don't go a day without needing at least a little, and it makes me high as a kite.

I can only eat tiny portions, so I'm having to eat like 6 times a day to get enough food, and I can't handle more than tiny amounts of fat, can't eat much sugar, I can't handle chocolate, I can't move around too much, I absolutely cannot double over, I can't... do... anything. I can't take a damn thing for anxiety (I've been avoiding even my allergy meds unless I absolutely have to take them) so all I can do is absolutely distract myself from anything anxiety-inducing at all costs, because god knows that would make the reflux worse, which means I've gone completely insane and my usual inability to remember what I'm supposed to do and what order to do it in has been multiplied 10 fold and I just... Ugh, I cannot stand this anymore.

I'm so. tired. of this. This doesn't make any sense. Why has this happened all of a sudden? My body just decided I wasn't useless enough, so it had to incapacitate me even further? And it had to wait till the beginning of summer to do this, so that I've essentially just totally missed a whole month of my favorite season?

It could be worse, but that thought doesn't make me any less cranky right now.

eta: And I just spent 50 minutes on the phone trying to get an appt. with a doc, getting passed from person to person, only to be told in the end someone would call me back in about an hour. Seriously, people, what the hell.